Barton dodges rain drops; sweeps Indy to advance in Region VI playoffs
The Barton County Community College baseball team got enough cooperation from the weather to sneak in two games Saturday at Jimmy Lawson and complete a sweep of Independence during the opening series of the Region VI baseball tournament. Barton won the opener 10-0 then followed with a 6-3 win to move to the double elimination portion of the tournament starting Saturday at Wichita's Lawrence-Dumont Stadium. Brock Nehls threw his 2nd complete game shutout in the past 2 weeks for the Cougars in the opener for the win then Barton gave up the lead and recaptured the lead in the 8th inning of the nightcap. The Cougars will take a 34-21 mark into the 8-team double elimination tournament. Barton will play the winner of the Colby/KCK series, which has been delayed due to rain. The Cougars will start play at 4 p.m.

Highlights
Nehls and Indy's Brian Thompson were locked in a pitching duel for most of the 1st game with Barton slowly building a lead on the Pirates. Barton took a 1-0 in the 1st when Brent Biggs singled, stole 2nd and scored on a 2-out triple by Wade Gubbels. The game stayed that way until the 4th when Barton scratched out another run. This time it was a Gubbels single that started the rally, eventually scoring from 2nd on a single by Tyler Metcalf. A walk and back-to-back bunt singles loaded the bases with no outs to start the 5th inning for the Cougars. But a double play and a pop up limited the Cougars to just 1 run as Barton pushed the lead to 3-0.

Meanwhile, Nehls was mowing down the competition, allowing just 2 hits – and no walks – during the opening 5 innings. In the 6th Indy collected a 1-out single and a 2-out single to put a runner on 3rd base for the 1st time in the contest. A grounder to 2nd ended the threat and Barton went to work in the bottom of the inning. This time the Cougars busted through for 3 runs. David Wilson and Metcalf started the inning with back-to-back doubles for the 1st run. Austin Holt drove in Metcalf a bases loaded bunt single by Biggs scored Anthony Dreiling for a 6-0 lead. As the rain began to fall during the 7th inning, Barton was in the process of taking a 10-run lead and ending the game early due to the run rule. After a strike out to start the inning, the next 6 Cougars reached base – 3 by walk and 3 by hits. The game ended when Biggs singled to right to score Ruble to make it 10-0 and tarp was immediately put on the infield as the rain continued.

A little more than 1 hour later, the two teams began the 2nd game and Barton picked up just where it left off in the opener. Barton tallied 3 runs to give the Cougars a 3-0 lead right off the bast. Holt started the game with a bunt that sailed over the 1st baseman head, into shallow right field that he turned into a double. A pair of errors in the inning helped the Cougars to the lead with 2 run being unearned. Indy scored 1 in the top of the 2nd but it could have been more after the Pirates loaded the bases with 1 out and already 1 run in. But Ryan Sheldon pitched out of the inning by getting Indy' Brett Gordon to hit into a 5-4-3 double play and end the inning. Sheldon worked his way out of a bases loaded jam in the 3rd as well then settled in and got stronger as the game went along. After a short delay for weather in the 5th, Sheldon returned to pitch his 2 best innings of the day, getting 3 quick ground ball outs in the 6th and striking out the side in the 7th as Sheldon retired the last 7 batters he faced.

The Cougars went to their bullpen for the final 2 innings, giving the ball to probable Top 10 draft pick Chad Lee for the 8th inning. A single and a pair of walks to start the inning put Lee in a bases loaded no out jam. He got a strikeout for the 1st out, then Indy hit a ground ball to 2nd, which Biggs threw errantly past 2nd base as he tried to wheel and turn the double play. That allowed 2 runs to score and tie the game at 3-all. The Cougars got out of the inning with no more damage then immediately recaptured the lead in the bottom of the inning. Holt doubled to start the inning, moved to 3rd on a ground out by a sacrifice bunt by Biggs and scored on a Ty Stivers single to give the Cougars the lead. A Gubbels double and an intentional walk to Wilson loaded the bases with 1 out for Metcalf, who struck out for the 2nd out of the inning. Erik Whinery then provided the insurance for the Cougars, driving in Stivers and Gubbels with a single to center and a 6-3 Cougar lead. That was more than enough for Nathan Hedrick, who picked up his 10th save of the season, allowing just 1 hit and no runs in the 9th as Barton locked up the trip to Wichita.

Notes
Austin Holt extended his hitting streak to 19 games with hits in both contests. Holt was 4-for-7 during the day and is now hitting .422 for the season.....Metcalf had moved his hitting streak to 12 straight before failing to come up with a hit in the 2nd game of the series. Barton had just 6 hits in the 2nd game.....

Stats
Complete stats can be found at www.bartonccc.edu

Next
Sat, May 6 – v KCK/Colby, 4 pm (Region VI Championships at Lawrence-Dumont in Wichita)